2012 Election
I think it will be good to track some 'events' and articles leading up to the election.
May 17, 2011
"Presidential hopefuls short on new ideas"
Submitted by SHNS on Thu, 05/12/2011 - 17:03By ANN McFEATTERS, Scripps Howard News Service
Polls show President Barack Obama is vulnerable in 2012 because many Americans need jobs or want a better job. But, so far, the field of GOP presidential candidates has little in the way of concrete solutions.
We are beginning to hear what his opponents propose to make this country better for everyone. It's thin gruel.
GOP candidates argue the next president should be a business leader, although Wall Street helped create the 2008 recession.
The argument goes like this: If America cuts hundreds of billions from spending on the poor and elderly and reduces corporate taxes (already the lowest in decades), businesses will stop sending jobs overseas and become confident enough to start hiring more Americans.
Nobody has explained how the economy would profit by fewer consumers with money to spend or why businesses that have banked huge profits would hire two workers when one worker is doing two jobs.
Front-runner Mitt Romney, former GOP governor of Massachusetts, says we must "Believe in America." He has been declared a "walking hypocrite" by Tea Partiers for pushing healthcare reform in his state, which Obama praised as a model for the health care reform that is now the law of the land, hated by many Republicans.
Romney boasts that as a businessman for 25 years, he will create jobs by advocating a new stimulus plan, permanent tax cuts and cutting spending for Medicare and Social Security. He says jobs will develop if America's proves it can cut spending, stop borrowing and not raise taxes on investment and capital spending.
Newt Gingrich is former speaker of the House who resigned under an ethics cloud and is now on his third marriage. He excused his six-year adultery with a congressional aide, which occurred while he was pursuing impeachment of former President Clinton for relations with Monica Lewinsky, by saying it was because he felt to passionately about the issues facing the country. Gingrich is running on the slogan "Winning the Future."
Gingrich says he wants to spend more tax dollars to help businesses, cut their taxes, cut spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and reduce the size of government.
Romney and Gingrich both excel at raising money for their causes, making them serious if unspecific contenders.
Tim Pawlenty, former two-term governor of Minnesota, is exploring running. Serious candidates must write an autobiography: his is "Courage to Stand." He is against teacher unions, advocates letting big banks fail, says government should not concern itself with the financial health of private companies and wanted the auto industry to file for bankruptcy. It's not clear how such stands would create more jobs.
Many Republicans desperately hope Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee will run.
Daniels is a well-liked fiscal conservative and popular governor who was a pharmaceuticals executive and former President George W. Bush's budget director. The fact that Bush left office with a vastly expanded national debt does not seem to offend anyone.
Mike "Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness" Huckabee , who may have the most charisma of the pack, is said to be happy selling books, having his own show on Fox, playing his guitar and building an expensive new house in Florida. (Note how former governors of Arkansas can't wait to leave.)
Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, was second to John McCain in the 2008 GOP primaries. Conservatives adore him for being against abortion, gay marriage and gun control. It's unclear how he would push businesses into a hiring binge.
It would be helpful if serious Republican presidential candidates propose effective, detailed solutions to creating jobs and reinvigorating the economy.
Here's betting we get an endless loop of platitudinous generics: Cut spending, lower taxes and reduce regulatory restraints on businesses.
Or as Gingrich says: "Let's get together, look reality in the face, tell the truth, make the tough choices and get the job done." Win that future.
(Scripps Howard columnist Ann McFeatters has covered the White House and national politics since 1986. E-mail amcfeatters(at)nationalpress.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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